WWE: Is Zack Ryder Running a Risk with His "Internet Buzz?"

Those of you who have been following Zack Ryder will know all about his current self-instigated push. He's doing it primarily through YouTube, where his weekly show Z! True Long Island Story is getting thousands of hits; and he's capitalising on Twitter, unlike some superstars who have their official account and then ignore it for weeks on end. In short, he's creating an "internet buzz," as he rightly observed in this week's show.

Yet this week saw an odd turn, whereby a sign at Monday Night Raw reading "Zack Ryder=Ratings" was apparently confiscated by security on backstage orders. Is Zack Ryder annoying the hierarchy with his efforts to create an audience for himself?

He seems to have the backing of other Superstars; John Morrison is a recurring presence in the show (Zack's dad is apparently a huge JoMo fan), and the Miz has been encouraging people to click through to the YouTube channel. Scott Stanford's been making guest appearances; David Lagana has been praising Ryder's work. So far, so good.

But are Ryder's little needles at WWE's failures starting to irritate? His shows have included little skits such as him climbing a fence and yelling, "I'm trying to get over! I'm trying to get over!", and after being shoved in the chest, retorting, "Zack Ryder doesn't get pushed." 

This week, after the big sign-confiscation saga, Ryder failed to smooth it over by noting, "I don't equal ratings! I'm not even on TV!" That's a slight exaggeration—he was on last week's Superstars and got squashed by Khali—but he wasn't in the UK this week, and it doesn't look like he'll be getting a featured role any time soon.

Unless, of course, his self-led campaign makes a difference. 100,000 hits on YouTube for a five-minute episode of Z! True Long Island Story shows there's a demand for different characters, and that Ryder is certainly getting himself over with viewers.

The question remains: will WWE accept that Ryder's done a better job with his character in the past two months than they've managed in five years?